McSweeney's Quarterly Concern
This has to be one of the best magazines ever (with the worst website ever). even its name sounds sophisticated. It's a Quarterly Concern. This magazine is so big that its a HARDCOVER and each month talks about god knows what. This month's guest editor is Chris Ware and the subjects are Cartoons and Comics. Ware does some of the most complicated and fascinating art i've ever seen. his skill lies as much in his design sense as it does his storytelling. Usually his work includes elaborately designed paper art and objects that can be constructed by the reader out of the actual comic book itself. a discription hardly does it justice.
Well, McSweeney's Issue 13 jumps right out at you. The cover is an elaborately folded and rendered, 2 sided 'funny pages'. the stories are often not funny at all, but reflective and serious. some are funny. some are horrors. know why? they are stories, and stories are those things.
The cover itself has TWO mini-comics stuffed into it. the magazine is a collection of works told in essays, art, and photographic rendering. When i bought this thing i felt like a little kid. you know how you would carry around the toy you were about to buy? you'd be walking through the store and you would be on a cloud because you clutched that toy you wanted and it was all yours now. just happy. proud to have it in your hand. This thing is so cool, that is exactly how i felt.
I feel smarter for owning it.
Friday, June 18, 2004
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4 comments:
Man, I didn't find those two minis until last night! The b & w one sucked, but the other one--"She Spoke Fluently in English and Sometimes in Hebrew"--was devastating, if a little too "open" in its style.
I was hella disappointed that all the Hernandez Bros. stuff was REPRINTS, and that it was already stuff I owned. Liked the Tomine, though, but jesus kid, you're rich, stop whining.
gorjus
have you read the new Optic Nerve? It was decent--better than the last few. Too bad it's a two part installment. So, the next one arrives...two years later? Jeez, what has he been doing with his time?! You'd think he could be a little more productive.
that was me, btw.
The Agent
I've not read the mini comics yet. how on earth could you unfold that giant funny pages cover and not find the 2 comics stuffed inside gorj?
AGENT! do you have the chris ware book or the individual comics? i often wondered if they left out the issues of acme novelty library that were HUGE? do you know? I have a great indie comic anthology that is basically diff. indie comic stars making fun of each other's comics. the stuff on chris ware was hilarious. i'll try and find it, then i'll try to reproduce it here (for review purposes, not copyright infringement).
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